The Charge

"Suit up!"

Opening Statement

How I Met Your Mother is the last remnant of a dated and stale comedic
genre—the three-camera, laugh track sitcom—milking it for every
hilarious cent. Unfortunately, in Season Five, the humor starts to run dry.

Facts of the Case

Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor, Not
Another Teen Movie) is a man looking for love. A young architect in New York
City, Ted is obsessed with meeting his future wife, but try as he might, he
can't meet the right woman. His happily married friends Marshall (Jason Segal,
I Love You, Man) and Lily (Alyson
Hannigan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are
obnoxiously content, and his perpetually single swinger friend Barney (Neil
Patrick Harris, Dr. Horrible's
Sing-Along Blog) is blissfully content with bachelorhood.

Still, everything works out for Ted. Twenty-five years in the future, Ted is
happily married with kids, telling them the story about how he met their mother.
It's a long story…

How I Met Your Mother: Season Five contains all twenty-four episodes
on three discs:

The Evidence

A confession: my wife is a big fan of this show. She dragged me into its
fandom like a mongoose on a snake. While not my personal favorite show on
television, I concede to its effortless charm and fantastic cast chemistry. If
you haven't seen the show, the format is an effervescent twist on a standard
sitcom: Bob Saget as the aged Ted Mosby—the textbook definition of an
unreliable narrator—reminiscing on his quest for love to his teenage
children, visually illustrated by excessive use of quick-cuts and chronological
flash sequences, both forward and back in time as punch lines.

I knew a guy once who put twenty thousand dollars of stereo equipment into a
six hundred dollar 1987 Minivan. It was pretty awesome, as long as you paid no
mind to the "old and busted" elements. Nice segue, eh? How I Met
Your Mother is an old-fashioned laugh track show, jazzed up around the edges
with fancy editing and the occasional registration of a fake website. Credit
where credit is due: the writers and producers manage to come up with some
surprisingly hilarious sequences using this methodology. But when you compare it
to shows like 30 Rock, Modern Family, and Arrested Development, it's
hard not to think about that Minivan.

Okay, to be fair, the fake websites are brilliant. Check out the Accomplices
section to get a taste.

How I Met Your Mother is a show that owes its success to its
marvelous cast and their magnificent chemistry. God bless Neil Patrick Harris,
because if he wasn't in this show, rest assured it would have been canceled four
seasons ago. He is the comedic glue that seals things up. Jason Segal and Alyson
Hannigan have their romantic timing down pat, and work together like separate
hydra heads attached to a scaly body, presumably hidden off-camera. Cobie
Smulders is extremely easy on the eyes, and Josh Radnor does his whiny shtick,
and while the writers had the misfortune to end their relationship, they came up
with another…combination.

Honestly, Robin and Barney? I can actually hear Fonzie strapping on the
water skis as I type this sentence. There are only so many male/female romantic
combinations a romantic sitcom can toss together, but some of them are just Bad
Ideas. The Stinson/Scherbatsky combination feels awkward and gangly from the
get-go. Thankfully, the writers clue into it fairly quickly and before too long,
Neil Patrick Harris is in a fat suit and we're back to square one.
Unfortunately, the damage has been done. Ted and Robin worked well, but the joy
of Barney is his endless chauvinistic bachelorism, not seeing him pine for a
lady.

Having conducted an official census of hardcore How I Met Your Mother
fans (in my head) the verdict is unanimous: Season Five is not the best season.
Plot lines feel stale and repetitive, jokes feel ineffective. When things get
desperate, we get more Canadian jokes, Barney's Playbook and the return of
Slapsgiving, which helps rebound the season. Once Ted goes house-shopping and
Lily and Marshall discuss having a baby, things are back to normal, because the
show works best when playing to its more wholesome themes—love, destiny
and other such pleasantries. No big reveals about who Ted's future wife is so
far, but if you can't stomach the occasional MacGuffin or two, you need more
television practice.

Presented in anamorphic widescreen, the transfer is serviceable but lacking.
Compression artifacts are easily detectable throughout the presentation. Colors
are natural, but the transfer is too soft and grainy to cut high definition
mustard. With eight episodes crammed onto a single disc, it's no wonder. Audio
comes in a pleasant 5.1 surround treatment, which does the job well with clear
dialogue and balanced bass. Alas, the rear channels are virtually mute; I can't
even remember hearing them kick in once.

For extras, we get audio commentary with cast and crew on three episodes
("Duel Citizenship," "Girls vs. Suits," "The Perfect
Week"), a blooper reel, three music videos ("Super Date,"
"Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit," "Best Night Ever"), a making
of "Super Date," an extended version of "The Wedding Bride"
trailer, a series recap and a behind-the-scenes featurette of the 100th episode.
Not a lot of substance outside of the commentary tracks, but it's nice to see
supplements included in this fifth season set. A lot of shows give it up after a
few years.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Seriously…a laugh track? It is the comedic equivalent of the buggy
whip. CBS is the only broadcast network doggedly sticking to this archaic
formula with every single sitcom in their stable. The laugh track is a bygone
relic of yesteryear programming; a time when executives were convinced beyond
all logic that a show needed a canned laugh track to evoke the sensation of
amusement from audiences.

For the record, How I Met Your Mother doesn't need the help in the
laugh department. Still, it would be nice if the producers had that much
faith.

Closing Statement

A measurable decline in comedic fortitude, but How I Met Your Mother:
Season Five still delivers the laughs for fans.